Follow the linked guide and from within Linux Mint live follow the rest of the guide

Install Linux Mint

Click on the install icon on the desktop.

The installer will start and you will be asked to choose your installation language.

Now personally I would choose the language that you are most fluent in otherwise you are really setting yourself an extra challenge.

If you have followed my guides for installing Ubuntu then most of these steps will be familiar to you but there are some subtle differences which I will come to shortly with regards to partitioning.

Linux Mint no longer asks you to connect to the internet and it doesn't ask whether you want to update your system during the installation.

You are however still asked whether you want to install third party software for graphics and WI-FI hardware, Flash, MP3 and other media.

I recommend checking this box especially if you have a modern computer as it will help to get your wireless and graphics cards working to their optimum.

Check the box and click "Continue".

Another screen was removed from the installer. It used to provide a screen showing how prepared you are for installing Linux Mint.

It was a fairly pointless screen because the options were as follows:

check your computer is plugged in

check your computer is connected to the internet

check your computer has enough disk space. (minimum 9.4 gigabytes)

The reason the screen was largely pointless is that you don't need to be plugged in if your computer happens to be a laptop which has enough battery power.

You didn't need to be connected to the internet to install Linux Mint.

Finally you needed realistically a lot more than 9.4 gigabytes of hard drive space. In reality a minimum of 20 gigabytes.

So that has gone and instead you move straight to the installation type screen.

I have received a number of comments on the Ubuntu dual boot guide stating that there is no option to install alongside Windows 10.

Previously whilst trying to dual boot Linux Mint with Windows 10 on this computer there was no option to install alongside Windows. It only came with the option to erase the disk or to do something else. All fairly scary stuff.

In Linux Mint 18 the installer does indeed show the "Install alongside Windows 10 boot manager".

If you get the install alongside Windows 10 boot manager, choose that option and click install now. Now skip to the section with the title "Confirm Changes To Disk".

How To Setup Using The Something Else Option

If you don't get the option to install alongside Windows 10 click on "Something Else".

You will now see a screen which shows your current disk layout. You will also see that I have highlighted a section of free space.

The first thing to check is the drop down list at the bottom of the screen. Make sure it points to the partition with type EFI listed in the table above.

The free space was created by shrinking Windows in a previous step. If you don't see a section of free space, stop what you are doing and revisit the steps for shrinking Windows.

With the free space line highlighted click on the plus symbol.

For this installation I am going to show you how to create 2 partitions. The first is the root partition and is where Linux Mint will be installed and the second will be the swap partition.

The create partition screen shows the amount of free space in megabytes.

You need to take away the amount of memory your computer has in gigabytes away from the size shown on your screen.

Note that the size is shown in megabytes so you will need to convert from gigabytes to megabytes. This may sound confusing but if your computer has 4 gigabytes of RAM then you need to take 4000 away from the figure in the size box, if you have 8 gigabytes of RAM then you need to take 8000 away from the figure in the size box.

Make sure the type for the new partition is set to primary, set the location to the beginning of this space, select "EXT4" as the use as and change the mount point to a forward slash (/).

You are basically creating a new primary partition with the EXT4 file system and setting the mount point to root.

Click "OK" to continue.

The partitioning screen will be displayed again. You should now see the new partition that you created in the previous step and there will still be free space.

Click on the free space and click the plus symbol again.

This time you will be creating a swap partition.

Leave the size as the number displayed (i.e use the rest of the free space).

Set the type to primary and leave the location as the beginning of the free space.

Select "swap area" as the option for use as.

Press "OK".

When you get back to the installation type screen click "Install"

Confirm Changes To Disk

A window will appear showing which partitions will be created.

Click "Continue".

Other Installation Settings

You will be pleased to know that the scary bit is now out of the way.

Click where you live on the map. This is used to set your timezone.

Click "Continue".

Choose your keyboard layout by selecting the language of the keyboard from the left pane and then the keyboard type from the right pane. Generally these are set for you already.

Click "Continue".

The final step is to create a user.

Enter your name and give your computer a name. The computer name is how it will appear on a home network.

Choose a user name and then choose a password. You will need to confirm the password.

You can choose to login automatically but I highly recommend that you don't do this. The default option is to require a password to login which is far more sensible.

The final box allows you to encrypt your home folder. You can do this to keep your important documents safe should your computer fall into the wrong hands (i.e. thieves). However if you lose the encryption key then you won't be able to access your documents yourself. It is up to you whether you tick this box or not.

Click "Continue".

The installer will now start copying the files and installing them to your computer. When the process has completed you will receive the option to restart now or continue testing.

You can now restart your computer making sure that you remove the USB drive after the computer has shut down.

When the computer restarts you will receive a new menu with options to boot into Linux Mint or to boot into Windows Boot Manager.

Try the Linux Mint option to make sure it works and then try the Windows option to make sure it works.

I've launched Linux Mint 17 from a pendrive, then i have created a partition in ext4 with GParted (about 150 GB), then i installed Mint following instruction.Everything fine, no need of backup because i've NOT touched windows partitions.

The reason I haven't released a guide on this yet is that I think the guide will be very short lived. When Linux Mint 18 is out it will have a newer Kernel and will therefore probably work straight away

There is no mention of preventing Windows 10 from preventing the USB drive from being read. I just wanna blow out windows and use Linux, but in my case, Windows 10 blocks that even with secure boot off.

Just installed Mint 18 alongside Win10 on an HP Probook 11 G2. It HAD worked fine from the live DVD so rather than going the whole hog & overwriting windows I opted to install alongside. The laptop now won't start, not from the SSD or from the DVD or USB. Sticks at the HP logo - any ideas welcomed.

Awesome guide! Do you by any chance have any idea what happens if I install mint alongside windows on my SSD, while having an HDD as well? (i have a classic setup of 1 ssd, where Windows are installed, and 1 hdd). I have heard that mint might erase your HDD completely. Is it true?